During a press conference before a Six Nations match against England in 2009, Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll went off script and pronounced to a room of bemused sports journalists, “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.” No less an authority than the Encyclopaedia Britannica, however, declares “tomatoes are fruits that are considered vegetables by nutritionists”. So, who is right — nutritionists or the fourth most-capped player in rugby union history? One man who must surely know the answer to this philosophical question is David Currid, a second-generation tomato grower based in Ballygunner, Co Waterford but he is far too diplomatic to be drawn into that particular debate. “You could be here till the cows come home arguing the pros and cons of that. We would always refer to a tomato as a fruit, yes. But then, in botanical terms, it is probably defined as a vegetable,” he muses. For David and his dedicated crew operating under glass in the sunny south-eastern corner of Ireland, what’s really important about a tomato is not how it is described but how it tastes. And when you listen to him enthuse about the texture, consistency and flavour of the varieties grown at Ballygunner, you can feel the passion for his craft and dedication to quality. Having been around tomato plants since he was “knee-high to a grasshopper”, he has witnessed the changing tastes of Irish consumers as people become more innovative, demanding greater quality and a more sustainable approach to the food they buy. The operation at Ballygunner has moved with the times. Or, perhaps, it’s more accurate to say that the times have moved with them as sustainability and a lack of waste have been core values at Grantstown going back decades.

From the root to the fruit

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A handful Grantstown Nurseries keeps tomato grower David Currid busy all year round

Certainly, over 50% of the food crops of the world are dependent on pollination

David Currid and the growers at Grantstown Nurseries cultivate towering vines of succulent, sun-ripened tomatoes in sustainable cathedrals of light.

METHOD 1. Preheat the oven to 200°C Fan (425°F/Gas Mark 7). 2. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into a large rectangle measuring about 45x30cm/18x12in and about 3mm thick. Lightly score a 1cm border around the edge of the pastry using a sharp knife and transfer to a baking tray. 3. Mix the pesto and cream cheese in a bowl until

Irish Tomato & Pesto Puff Pastry Tart

That’s glass Chef Neven Maguire (left) with David Currid in the glasshouse at Ballygunner, Co Waterford

Describing how the family came to be in this corner of the country, he reflects, “My father was a commercial tomato grower going back to the 1960's and he worked for a company in Dundalk. They owned the site we operate from now in Ballygunner, in Waterford. So, my dad made a decision to buy this nursery from his employers and we relocated from Dundalk down to the sunny southeast in November 1978. That's when Grantstown Nurseries came into being.” The operation has evolved over the decades and now encompasses one hectare or 'two and a half acres in old money' of glasshouses, where they grow up to ten different tomato varieties at any time — constantly monitoring what resonates with people's tastes. Where once the humble tomato was universally recognisable in Irish stores, we now have an array of gorgeous colours, sizes and flavours. “Every variety has its own unique taste characteristics and juice content. Some are very juicy and kind of explode in your mouth when you bite into them, while others are meatier and some people prefer that.” There is a whole spectrum of choice available today for those who prefer their tomatoes large or small, thick or thin-skinned, fibrous or tender. “People's tastes have become so much more sophisticated in the modern world over that period of time. Now the packs that we sell in Dunnes Stores are a mix of yellow, black, stripy ones, funny-shaped tomatoes and different colours as people get more adventurous.” The latest varieties to be integrated into the Simply Better range are the Tomkin and Tomistar tomatoes, which feature in Neven Maguire’s delicious Irish Tomato & Pesto Puff Pastry Tart recipe featured below. They were chosen specifically for their complementary tastes and textures. “The Tomkin is a drier tomato. It’s about 45 grammes in weight. It’s a dry pulpy tomato but it has a very meaty consistency, which lends itself very well towards baking in the oven.” The name derives from the tomato’s somewhat pumpkin shape with a ‘Tomkin’ being a hybrid of a tomato and a pumpkin. The ‘Tomistar’, on the other hand, is a smaller, thin-skinned, juicy tomato that’s perfect for snacking. Put the two of them together and you get the delicious recipe provided here.

The other thing that gets David animated is the commitment towards sustainability. Tomatoes at Ballygunner are pollinated by indigenous species of bees living in hives on the farmland. “Without those bumblebees – if the flowers aren’t pollinated correctly – we don’t get properly shaped tomatoes. It would be very similar to a strawberry that's misshapen. That's generally due to bad pollination. So, the bees are our best friends and our most effective workers because they're working all the hours that they can and they don't need time off… they can keep working away. As long as the weather conditions are right, they can keep pollinating flowers.” These industrious workers are such vital cogs in the food chain that they have to be protected at all costs. As David points out, “Certainly, over 50% of the food crops of the world are dependent on pollination. They are critical to our continued survival on the planet and we need to take care of them.” Alongside the bees, pest control is taken care of by an ingenious system, employing small parasitic wasps that act as natural predators to the white flies and red spider mites that are a tomato's greatest foe. This native species of 'critters' is employed as a miniature army of voracious security guards, ensuring that the crop can go from seed to fruit without so much as a drop of insecticide being sprayed on their smooth, shiny skin. “I don't want to be using plant protection or pesticide products. Nobody wants to handle stuff like that. So, it's a win-win. We're happy and our employees are happy that they're working in an environment that’s clean. And it’s a good story to tell.” Those employees are a tight-knit group who can ensure standards never drop. “By European standards, we would be very small. We would have about five people employed full time and then, during the harvesting period, that would increase to about 16 or 17.”

The plants themselves grow up into the large, high-roofed glasshouses as vines, chasing the sunlight. The greenhouses act as a prism for the life-giving sunlight to radiate through. “That's the beauty of glass,” David explains. “As soon as the sun comes out, the temperature just goes in a straight line, northwards. So, you can go from a situation where it's dull and overcast and you're actually introducing heat into the glasshouse but once the sun comes out, you're accessing free energy straight away. We always say sunshine is the most important climatic factor for glasshouse growers because when the sun shines, the crop is happy, photosynthesis is racing on at a rate of knots… Sunlight is king in our business.” A tomato is an annual, one-season crop, growing roughly from early April until mid-November. Each plant will develop to somewhere in the region of 50 metres long and produce about 30 to 35 vines. All those tomatoes can get pretty thirsty under glass but that’s where Grantstown’s rainwater recovery system comes in – providing all the water needed to irrigate the crops. Even in sunny Waterford, it rains occasionally and, when it does, that water is collected in storage tanks on the glasshouse roof all through winter, to be released in the dry months. “That means that we're virtually self-sufficient in water… Touch wood, even, I think it was in 2017/2018, when we had a very dry summer, but we still had enough water that we were able to survive a drought.” As for this tomato connoisseur’s own particular favourite way to eat the products he so lovingly cultivates, “I love them baked in the oven on the vine. That's my preference for tomatoes. Sometimes, we bring them home… we’d stuff them with cheese and onions and a little bit of garlic… bang them in the oven for 20 minutes and it's fantastic. To me it's a meal in itself." It most definitely is. Try the Grantstown Nurseries delicious Simply Better range for yourself and you’ll discover all that effort really pays off. Whether you consider them animal, mineral, vegetable or fruit, there’s one thing that consumers, nutritionists and former Irish rugby captains would almost certainly agree on when it comes to tomatoes. It’s not what you call them but how you grow them that counts.

INGREDIENTS

combined, then spread a layer of the pesto cream cheese inside the pastry border. Arrange the sliced tomatoes on top and season with a little salt and pepper before transferring to the oven to bake for about 25-30 minutes until the pastry has puffed up and become golden. 4. Garnish the puff pastry tart with the fresh basil leaves and serve straight to the table.

The bee all and end all for growers

NEVEN'S RECIPE FOR

See Neven Maguire’s Irish Tomato & Pesto Puff Pastry Tart recipe

Flourishing on the vine

1 pack of Simply Better Ready To Roll All Butter Puff Pastry, thawed 3 tbsp Simply Better Italian Basil Pesto Alla Genovese with PDO Genovese Basil 250g Simply Better Irish Tomkin & Tomistar Tomatoes, sliced 125g cream cheese Fresh basil leaves, to garnish Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

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See Neven Maguire’s Irish Tomato & Pesto Puff Pastry Tart recipe